Ladies and gentlemen, the following public service message is brought to you by your friends from D-Generation X, who would like to remind each and every one of you that if you're not down with that, we've got two words for you... Intel Facing Antitrust Investigation (nytimes.com)

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The investigation into accusations that Intel’s pricing policies have been designed to maintain a near-monopoly on the microprocessor market was authorized by William E. Kovacic, the new chairman of the trade commission, and has the support of the agency’s other commissioners.

It reversed a decision by his predecessor, Deborah P. Majoras, who had been blocking the formal inquiry for many months, frustrating other senior commission officials and some lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

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Intel, which was founded by engineers who both developed the chip and made repeated innovations that made it smaller and more powerful, controls 80 to 90 percent of the microprocessor market. American antitrust law permits a company to hold a monopoly, but it forbids a company from leveraging its dominance to restrict competition.

A.M.D. has asserted that Intel offers rebates and discounts that, in effect, result in its chips being sold at prices below the cost of production, a practice that some courts in cases involving other companies have said can be a violation of antitrust law.

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While it's obvious that this is only finally happening because the Bushies have officially breached the "I'm going to be gone soon so I don't give a ****" line, I'm stoked that Intel is finally going to be put under the microscope. Personally, the blatant unbalanced nature of the market is proof enough that Intel's been engaged in some shady practices, especially given that AMD had them beat handily in the last generation of processors in terms of quality and price, but the sales never materialized to pay tribute to that (and no one could ever explain why - in a legal way, anyway).

smark/net attack Advisory System Status is: Elevated(Holds; June 18, 2006)While the switch from Cena to RVD should alleviate some complaints, the inevitability of the belt's return to Cena (note where Summerslam is this year) and the poor initial showing by the new ECW are enough to keep the indicator where it is for now. The pieces are in place, though, especially on RAW, for improvements to be made to the IWC's psyche in the near future.

The last generation had several OEM companies exclusively use Intel. It wasn't until well into my tenure at Dell that we saw AMD processors hitting our systems (much like how we finally offer select systems with Linux). And currently don't offer many systems/configurations with AMD processors either. I doubt we weren't the only OEM to have excusively Intel for a long awhile, and I doubt we're the only one currently having a largely Intel lineup. That could certainly explain why Intel (and Windows) have such a huge marketshare.

The current generation, meanwhile, has Intel chugging along with the best processors in the market. AMD, after the aquisition of ATI, was bleeding red ink and now had a war on two fronts (Intel and nVidia). Having a CURRENT superior product certainly helps marketshare.

(edited by El Nastio on 7.6.08 0251)Yes, I finally have updated the Troll Moment of the Week! This week is brought to you by ;

"STONEBOY!" , who brought us the following such pieces of wisdom as:

STONEBOY!: "THIS GOES MESSAGE GOES OUT TO ALL CANADIANS ESPECIALLY MONTREAL WHEREVER THE F#CK THAT IS".

Kidbrooklyn: "Please god tell me that you're making fun of the douche who started this thread...

Wait, no he isn't. He's serious. I hadn't read his previous brilliance before. I apologize" (in reference to a reply by James1978).

I don't know why it's bothering me so much, but on all of Google's websites (main page, GMail, Blogger, etc.) the font is just slightly larger than it has been previously ... I didn't change any of my personal settings (as far as I know)